Meeting with the Bishops of Portugal (13 May 1982)

On Thursday, 13 May 1982, the Holy Father met in Fatima with the Bishops of Portugal, to whom he spoke of “the charism of Pastor, one of the main gifts of the episcopal vocation.”

Venerable and dear brothers in the Episcopate.

1. Here in Fatima, in the environment where your Episcopal Conference uses to celebrate its usual meetings, the successor of Peter today has the fortune and joy of meeting you and gathering with you. This circumstance, secondary in itself, however, has a meaning: being here physically among you makes the feeling of when I was here spiritually and here I will remain from now on, always in this place where you gather collegially, become concrete.

As for me, I want to take advantage of this hour of fraternal banquet, in the program of my pilgrimage to Fatima and pastoral visit to Portugal, to reflect with you on some aspects of the mission as Pastors of your people and on the Episcopal Conference. The Second Vatican Council, as you well know, raised the importance of the Episcopal Conferences as an element of communion and expression of the " affectus collegialis " of the Episcopate in itself, in dependence and united with the successor of Peter.

It is in this emotional union that today I greet you, here, beloved brothers, with a kiss of peace: I greet the President, Dom Manuel de Almeida Trindade, and each of you, the Bishops who make up the Portuguese Episcopal Conference.

The living and heartfelt presence of our Lady in this Sanctuary contributes to giving our meeting an expressive image of that "upper room", where, say the Acts of the Apostles, the Eleven "were assiduous in prayer with Mary, Mother of Jesus" ( cf. Acts 1, 14) and where, probably, Peter and the other apostles were with our Lady on the morning of Pentecost.

This short but intense moment that we live, here, "with Mary", is for us and for the Church of Portugal a time of true Pentecost. For this reason, may the Spirit of the Father and the Son assist us with her light and with her strength.

2. As far as I can understand the human reality of your country, from contact with some of you and with your faithful in Rome, I was impressed by some aspects linked above all to the historical moment that Portugal is experiencing.

This is certainly a time of transition. And as in all moments of transition, especially when this, despite being rapid and profound, takes on the true characteristics of cultural transformation , enthusiasm and anxiety, audacity and fear, openness to a future faced with optimism and the need to reaffirm, if not recover, the solid values ​​of the past. These values ​​are not rarely sacrificed in moments of euphoria.

I admire in this Portugal, eager to be a modern nation, inserted in contemporary Europe, the interesting coexistence of traditional characteristics, with roots in a very ancient history rich in traditions, with other characteristics dependent on openness to the future.

As for the pastoral problem, forcibly influenced by what happens on a human and civil level, I am not surprised to see in Portugal currently a notable coexistence of a profound religious feeling, of which the multitudes I am seeing in Fatima are just one aspect, but which it manifests itself even more in the life of the parishes of certain areas of the country and, on the other hand, an undeniable sign of what, for short, I would call secularization: agnosticism in intellectual circles, universities and a large part of the youth; a certain concept of life or a certain humanism without God; serious problems in the family environment, especially due to what is thought regarding the indissolubility of marriage; loosening of moral conscience and consequent relaxation of customs; pursuit of well-being at any price, etc.

The Church, for what is spiritual and religious, ethical and human in these realities, cannot ignore them. It has criteria and arguments that lead it to take a position in the face of the many concrete problems that this situation of transition or, more precisely, transformation produces. It has an interest in not being upset by the contradictions and challenges that this situation presents.

Instead, try to identify these challenges so you can respond before they become insoluble.

3. At this point the Pastors of the Church have a role of primary importance which, by virtue of the episcopal charism and a mandate from God, belongs only to them. No one will take on this role if they do not take it on.

This office of Bishop is deeply linked to the charism of Pastor, one of the main gifts of the episcopal vocation.

If time were not short and the program was not pressing, I would give in to the desire to descend with you into the depths of this charism, as Saint John reveals it in the admirable chapter X of his Gospel. In a parable and in the respective explanation, Jesus speaks of the Shepherd in light of his condition as a Good Shepherd. There would be much to say about the Shepherd who knows the sheep by name; that for them he gives his life; that he defends them against thieves, or against the wolf. We will be able to reread together Saint Augustine or Saint Gregory the Great, in some of their most beautiful pages on pastures, which the former calls "officium amoris" and the latter, referring to the care of souls, calls "ars artium".

Here I just want to underline one function of the Shepherd: that of guiding the flock. Driving is moving forward. Forward to know the path; measure the depth of the streams, discover the dangers, guarantee the path; forward to stimulate and instill courage; forward to indicate the safe way and avoid misunderstandings. In phases of instability and transformation, the function of these guides is indispensable and precious and the people who find them in their Bishops are blessed.

If by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and through the virtues and gifts cultivated with effort and prayer and through solid preparation, the Bishops of a country are capable of discerning, with clairvoyance, the succession of events, many will find among them what, in the medium of ambiguous realities, because they are multipurpose, criticize situations, tendencies, currents of thought and ideologies and thus stop the uncertain path. If the guides are fathers, they will be able to push you to follow new paths, even if difficult, abandoning the attractions of the easier, but almost always deceptive, paths.

The Church, and especially this part of it that is in Portugal, and that on which the burden of the supreme pontificate weighs, knows that you, Portuguese Bishops, are aware of your mission as Pastors and guides. Continue to put it into practice without hesitation, especially when it comes to indicating the safe path among the tangle of possible paths.

In this regard, I repeat that the Church does not claim the right to impose its doctrine on anyone; but you have the right and duty to propose it, with humility and love. Paraphrasing Paul VI in Evangelii Nuntiandi , I can say that if we Bishops clearly propose the way of the Church, those who, by preconception, despise this proposal may sin, but our conscience will not reproach us for anything. If, on the contrary, out of tiredness or fear, human respect or uncertainty of our own beliefs, we fail to expose what we know to be the truth, those who for this reason remain in ignorance of the Gospel and of Christ, perhaps do not sin, but we will not be without fault.

4. At a certain height the charism of the Shepherd-guide is profoundly united with that of the educator of faith. Guiding a person or a community, orienting a process of transformation, is from the perspective of a Bishop, educating in the faith.

The more I observe the faith of your people, especially simple people, the more I admire the ancient roots that it takes root in people's souls. For its spontaneity and sincerity, for the concrete hints it elicits and for the attitudes it provokes in relationships with God and with his Son Jesus, with suffering and with one's own death, with other people and with events, with present world and with the future. On the other hand, I see this faith exposed to danger and even, as Paul VI wrote in Evangelii Nuntiandi , besieged by many corrosive forces, threatened in its integrity and even in its survival; this is because, due to certain historical circumstances, which we cannot analyze here, this faith is not always as solid as it is spontaneous, nor as profound as it is sincere.

Your first commitment to the faith of your people is to recognize and appreciate it; to respect its authentic manifestations; to defend it against the ferments that put it in danger; to strengthen it, freeing it from any elements of beliefs and superstitions and giving it a more doctrinal content. In a word, it is the commitment to educate it in the light of the Word of God and the Magisterium of the Church, to nourish it with true catechesis. Recognizing the efforts you have made and are making to increase it, I urge you to continue on the path, especially as regards initiatives relating to the Christian formation of young people and adults.

The faith of the children of this Nation is no less threatened who, educated in the sciences, techniques and arts, would need to have the level of Faith itself corresponding to that of human knowledge. Even more so, since thanks to their intellectual "status", they will be called to occupy positions of responsibility, influence and decisions in civil society.

In the two cases, the needs and means to deepen the faith are different, but the duty of the Pastors is the same. With the effort you have made and will continue to make, as teachers of faith, to make your faithful become more conscious and less conditioned, more rooted and less superficial, more committed and less individualistic, more operative and less intimate, you will provide not only a benefit for them, but also a benefit for society. This is especially true for those who, in the most diverse sectors, are invested with social responsibilities.

Furthermore, do not be paralyzed by the thought which is in itself correct, that it is not within your competence, as Bishops, to make technical contributions, of a political or economic nature, for the social transformation of your country. Have the certainty that, by exercising your teaching and educating the people and communities entrusted to you by God in the faith, you are preparing Christians who, transformed internally, will transform the world, through technical solutions that are precisely theirs to offer to the community.

In this line of behavior, the Church possesses and makes known a humanism founded in revealed Truth, a vision of the world based on the Gospel, a scale of values ​​illuminated by faith. Do not fear and do not hesitate to take on all this, confident that you are providing, as teachers of faith, a service to men.

5. It is impossible not to touch upon, at this point, another aspect of particular interest of the episcopal mission. I am referring to your role as builders, guarantors and maintainers of the ecclesial community.

With clear and incisive words the Divine Master, in the supreme hour of farewell to the Apostles, expressed the theological and spiritual value of the unity of the Church. History, in turn, has repeatedly demonstrated that the Church is the bearer of a great potential of energy, and reveals prodigious effectiveness in her mission when she bears witness to unity; and that, unfortunately, you remain paralyzed when you lack this testimony. The Second Vatican Council, in the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium , very happily frames this ecclesial dimension, in defining the Church as the communion of the faithful with God and with each other, to be as a consequence, germ, principle and leaven of communion in the bosom of humanity.

Your mission as Bishops is to be the principle and sign of this communion, and to be patient and persevering creators of it.

As is obvious, communion first and foremost of the Bishops among themselves and within the Episcopal Conference. The pastoral service you exercise requires, at the deepest level, solid communion between you. The foundations of this communion, much stronger than what could divide you, are the one Lord who called you, the one truth that you serve, the one salvation in Jesus Christ that you proclaim and the fraternal charity that keeps you united. May the collegial and collaborative commitment, of which you have given testimony on many occasions in the past, continue to be increased with common study and individual local initiatives for national development, in a spirit of true responsible communion.

It is within your Presbyters that the building of the ecclesial community will continue.

The conciliar documents shed new light on the ancient reality of the presbyterial college gathered around the Bishop in the pastoral government of each Church. By advocating the creation of the Presbyteral Council and recommending other ways of collaboration, the Council wants the harmony between the Bishop and his fathers to be translated into concrete gestures and actions, as the Liturgy and Theology have always expressed with admirable concepts.

To be affective and effective at the same time, this communion must be sought and cultivated every day. It requires efforts on all sides and often the overcoming of barriers and resistance. The clear and visible testimony of this communion is the bearer of stimuli for communion at other levels.

Secondly, I think of the communion that must be created among the faithful through your priests.

There are many sources of tension that make this community fragile and unstable. The label of "conservatives" and "progressives", the options between a more spiritual vision of the Church and another of greater commitment, or the preference for this or that ecclesial movement: it is not uncommon for all this and much more to be an occasion of deep ruptures in the ecclesial community. Without speaking of the temptation, always alive, to create or at least allow class oppositions and confrontations to be created in the Church which explode disastrously in society.

It is the duty of the Bishops, in union with their Presbyterate, not only not to aggravate the ferment of division, but to strengthen the bonds of unity. The constitution of ecclesial communion does not consist - as you well know - in ignoring or minimizing conflicts, the seeds of separation. It consists in revealing and making the forces of communion prevail with such credibility, in creating and putting into action these ferments of unity so that the things that unite are much more important than those that divide.

At this point the effort made by a Bishop to establish unity will be compensated by the luminous testimony of this same unity.

6. I do not want to close these considerations without confiding in you some hope, in the certainty that it corresponds to your anxieties and that our meeting will stimulate you to intensify your efforts in the fields that I now recall.

The first field is that of " vocations for the presbyterial ministry and for the consecrated life ".

The Church has become accustomed to receiving numerous priests and religious men and women from your country, available for ecclesial service, both in your own homeland and for missionary activity in other countries.

It would be absurd to think that God no longer calls, in Portugal, as in other lands, young, capable and generous Christians for the priestly ministry or for religious life. It is important and urgent to know how to call these young people by offering them a demanding but clear ideal, a well-defined identity, a field of action capable of showing them the gift for life. The Bishops, more than anyone else, must take on the commitment to make Christ's invitation reach the greatest possible number of young Christians; and after the no less important commitment of offering them a framework of formation, support for their ideal and such a perspective of commitment to life by which they allow themselves to be carried away.

Continue to pay maximum attention to " catechesis ". Only it, if it is well oriented, in method and content, will be able to guarantee your people the possibility of growing in faith.

You have in the Portuguese Bishops, of the ancient and recent past, models of Pastors attentive to the need for catechesis and dedicated to promoting it among their faithful, with a sense of opportunity, extreme attention to the truths to be transmitted and pastoral sensitivity in the search for the language suitable for the people to be catechize. As a symbol I evoke the admirable figure of the venerable friar Bartolomeu dos Martires, the great Archbishop of Braga, protagonist in the Council of Trent, rich in virtue and apostolic zeal.

7. Finally, I share with you my pastoral concern regarding the " family " and its authentic values.

I am aware of being in a country that has always considered the family institution and authentic family values ​​as pillars of its civilization. It is well known that, at the heart of the culture that Portugal radiated beyond its borders, and in discovering new worlds, love and respect for these values ​​has always been found.

As I had the opportunity to note in the apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio , these values ​​do not lose their relevance: through them passes the path to a full and Christian humanism; and the insufficient cultivation of the same is certainly one of the roots of the serious moral crisis that worries us all.

The transformation, to which I referred earlier, characteristic of the current historical moment in Portugal, directly affects the family. He calls her as an interlocutor to recognize and reconfirm her true values ​​and shed the false values ​​that, unfortunately, had infiltrated her. It also touches her, hitting her in what is essential: interpersonal communion, love as a gift of oneself, as mutual help, as forgiveness and as self-overcoming, the unity, eternity, fidelity and fruitfulness of this love, intimacy and generosity of the home, respect combined with esteem and affection in the education of children, etc.

I want to invite you to always give an important place to the family in your concerns as Pastors and guides. Continue to examine together what the real situation of the family is in the various social classes of this country: the great values ​​that exist in it, the evils that afflict it and the help that it requires. And, with the broad cooperation of the various competent bodies, ecclesial or extra-ecclesial, develop a long-term plan not only for the defense and protection, but also and above all for the positive promotion of the family. I have included all sectors in this family ministry, from education to love to the help to be given to families shaken by more or less serious and profound crises.

You already know that, in encouraging what you have achieved on this point, with your specific mission you will offer a notable service to the Church, which has its living cells in families. Indirectly, you will also benefit Portuguese society in this field.

Venerable and beloved brothers.

I thank God who, always full of graces, has offered me this meeting with you. There is no need to repeat that, in the life and activity of the Pope, the moments he spends with his brother Bishops, dealing with them the essential questions of the life and action of the Church, in a line of vivid collegial co-responsibility, are the most dense. He cannot forget that, in defining it as a visible principle of union, Lumen Gentium adds that it is so, first of all, for the Bishops.

For this reason, after thanking God, I also want to thank you for wanting this meeting. To each of you and to the local Church represented by each of you, to your presbytery, to your men and women religious, to your families and people, my heartfelt greeting goes out and I heartily bless you "in Domino". I ask God to watch over you, over your pastoral anxieties, over your successes and your efforts. May he assist you in your work and bless you always.

And from these heights of Fatima, may our Lady protect you under her maternal eye, as throughout the country you dedicate yourselves to building the Kingdom of her Son.
 

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